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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has unveiled plans to upgrade its recommendation 24 on transparency and beneficial ownership, stressing how the Pandora papers leaks confirmed the ML vulnerabilities posed by anonymous shell companies and other pro-secrecy arrangements.  In its proposals, FATF wants all countries to ban the issue of bearer shares and establish a beneficial ownership registry, “or use an alternative system that also enables efficient access to beneficial ownership information by competent authorities”.…

The huge offshore finance leak unveiled yesterday (October 3) by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners has highlighted the pressures AML reporters face in complying with increasingly tough beneficial ownership transparency laws.

Reports generated from 2.94 terabytes of data within 12 million documents leaked to the ICIJ from the confidential records of 14 offshore service providers have been analysed by 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.…

The Bangladesh innerwear industry has been witnessing robust growth in the past decade and this outsourcing hub is now competing effectively with its major rival China. The production value of the country’s intimate wear jumped from US216 million in 2012 to US1.078 billion in 2021, according to a report from data service Statista (1).…

AS the European Union (EU) debates the proposed creation of a supra-national EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) and associated reforms to EU AML/CFT law, it must take privacy concerns into account, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has argued.

In a comprehensive and detailed comment on the proposed new EU AML/CFT regulation and directive, the EDPS, an EU agency with powers to regulate the EU general data protection regulation, has said it supports these proposed laws’ embrace of the risk-based approach, which implies measures “as effective as possible and as less intrusive as possible”.…

After a tumultuous first semester fuelled by Covid-19 and a tight and polarised presidential election, Peru’s clothing and textile sector is now growing at pre-pandemic levels. Hence, the capital Lima’s chamber of commerce (Cámara de Comercio de Lima) projects growth between 10% and 15% in textile and clothing exports by the end of 2021, compared to what was reported in 2019.…

As the global clothing industry is reviving from Covid=19 slump, Bangladesh apparel manufacturers are at last reaping the benefits, industry is also bearing the fruit. In an exclusive interview with Just Style, the new president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Faruque Hasan noted that the Bangladesh clothing industry suffered a reduction in its exports of USD6 billion from USD34.13 billion in financial year (FY – July-June) 2018-19 to USD27.95 billion in FY 2019-20 and a year-on-year drop of clothing exports worth nearly USD1.5 billion in financial year (FY) 2020-21 (July 2020 to June 2021) (1).…

Curbs introduced by the Chinese government on the use of electricity within the country have been significantly disrupting the textile supply chain, creating anxiety among garment manufacturers even beyond China’s borders. 

These challenges have unfolded after the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on September 16 unveiled a plan stipulating that China will firmly control energy-hungry and high-emission industrial projects.…

India’s packaged cake industry is enjoying a significant rise in sales, as the country’s economy and society stabilises amidst declining coronavirus infection rates. This growth has prompted companies to invest heavily in innovative products and capacity expansion.

Industrially manufactured packaged cakes, pastries and sweet pies are projected to command annual sales of USD453.1 million during 2021, up from USD423.4 million in Covid-19 hit 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.9% projected for 2020-25, according to market researcher (and owner of Just Food) GlobalData.…

Turkish apparel manufacturers are investing significant sums of money in sustainability and traceability, implementing international standards, and adopting digitalisation in anticipation of more consumer demand for eco-friendly products.

With Turkey a higher-end (and cost) apparel manufacturing hub than east Asia, Egypt or Africa, the country’s industry is banking on its value-added production to retain as well as expand exports to Europe and North America.…

The Turkish apparel sector is looking to build on its long-standing record as a major apparel producer for the American market, offering quality products at a swifter time-to-market than its key competitors in Asia, especially China.

Turkey’s apparel exports to the USA remain robust – at around USD1 billion-a-year according to Mehmet Kaya, a board member of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (İstanbul Hazır Giyim ve Konfeksiyon İhracatçıları Birliği – İHKİB).…